Romanian Parliament called to stop being a shield anymore for the corrupt politicians and prevent justice

The undersigning organizations request from the members of the Romanian Parliament the following:

- not to obstruct anymore the judicial process involving their colleagues; - to vote openly on the requests from the Anti-corruption National Directorate (DNA) to waive the parliamentarian immunity; - to stop making public statements that are undermining justice.

The Romanian Parliament constantly denies the requests by the DNA for the pre-trial detention of the investigated politicians on corruption charges or the start of their criminal investigations.

In the past years, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate became the shield of the parliamentarians – some former ministers – investigated for corruption, denying all the requests from the DNA to have their parliamentarian immunity waived.

Marius Isaila, Florin Popescu, Vlad Cosma, Laszlo Borbely, Victor Paul Dobre or Ion Stan are few examples of parliamentarians investigated by DNA for corruption, but who were protected by their colleagues by being placed above the law.

This attitude undermines the rule of law and it is placing us outside of the Western civilization. This attitude also represents a betrayal of the Romania’s interest, being a vulnerability to the national security in an external context that is so fretful.

Many important Romanian leaders continue to interfere, through their public statements, in the act of justice. Thus, the Romanian Prime minister Victor Ponta had publicly solidarized himself with the counties’ presidents or mayors investigated for corruption, like Adrian Duicu (Mehedinti county), Ion Prioteasa (Dolj), Radu Mazare (Constanta) – accusing the DNA that it is making "cases politically motivated".

Also, local leaders who are under investigation for corruption or conflict of interest, like Radu Mazare or Nicusor Constantinescu, call for the disbandment of the institutions that are investigating them.

We ask the members of the Romanian Parliament not to provide a shield of immunity anymore for their colleagues when they need to face justice, and to vote openly on these cases so they can be accountable for their vote. We also ask all the politicians to restrain themselves from making statements that are affecting the judiciary process in any way.